The Trump administration told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the president’s authority to protect the nation is under siege from lower court rulings, using a final brief in a high-stakes deportation case to accuse federal judges of imperiling the executive branch’s core powers.
In the filing – the last before justices are slated to rule on President Donald Trump’s use of a 1798 immigration law to deport Venezuelan nationals – administration lawyers outlined what they call a pattern of judicial overreach and mounting efforts by federal courts to rein in the president’s agenda.
“A single district court cannot broadly disable the President from discharging his most fundamental duties, regardless of the order’s label, and irrespective of its duration,” U.S. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said Wednesday in the filing.
Lawyers for the Trump administration urged the court to vacate a pair of lower court orders handed down by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg and by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which they argue have “rebuffed” Trump’s immigration agenda, including its ability “to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations.”
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Plaintiffs pushed back on the administration’s reliance on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, calling its use during peacetime “unprecedented.” In a brief filed earlier this week, they argued the law permits immediate deportations only in cases of a “declared war” or an “invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign nation – conditions they say do not apply to the Venezuelan nationals targeted for removal.
The 1798 law at the center of the case has been invoked only three times in U.S. history: during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
Both sides have now submitted their briefs to the Supreme Court, clearing the way for a final decision from the nine justices.
The administration has defended the deportations as necessary to remove alleged members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, who were transferred to El Salvador under the rarely used 18th-century law.
The deportations were temporarily blocked last month, first by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, and later by a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, prompting the Trump administration to seek relief from the Supreme Court.
“This Court should vacate this TRO, halt the tide of injunctions, and restore the constitutional balance,” Harris told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
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Harris warned that the flurry of injunctions has become so routine it now threatens to paralyze the executive branch, noting that district courts have issued more than 40 injunctions or temporary restraining orders against the administration in just the last two months.
Such orders, she argued, risk “destabilizing” the president’s foreign policy powers and “perversely” prevent migrants from using proper legal channels to challenge their designations.
Judge Boasberg and the D.C. Circuit panel blocked the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act while the case plays out on the merits – a move Boasberg defended as necessary after what he described as a secretive, expedited round of deportations that gave migrants no meaningful opportunity to contest their removal or seek court relief.
The U.S. Circuit Court judges who voted 2–1 to extend the block – Karen Henderson, a Bush appointee, and Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee – spent much of last month’s oral arguments focused on due process concerns and the potential for immediate, irreparable harm to migrants deported under the law.
Boasberg, for his part, sharply criticized the administration for failing to disclose how many individuals were deported to El Salvador on the same night he blocked further removals. It remains unclear whether officials knowingly violated his bench order to return any departing flights to U.S. soil.
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The filing follows weeks of White House criticism accusing federal courts of blocking key parts of Trump’s agenda – a pattern officials describe as judicial overreach.
The administration urged the court to vacate Boasberg’s temporary restraining order, “halt the tide of injunctions” and “restore the constitutional balance” that has escalated tensions between the executive and judiciary early in Trump’s second term.
It also asked the Court to at least grant an administrative stay, allowing deportations to continue under the Alien Enemies Act while the justices weigh the case.
White House officials have continued to denounce the lower court rulings, which press secretary Karoline Leavitt last month called an “unauthorized infringement” on the president’s authority.
“The administration will act swiftly to seek Supreme Court review to vindicate the president’s authority, defend the Constitution, and Make America Safe Again,” Leavitt said.
